Essential Digital Marketing Tools For Any Effective Strategy
In this day and age, it’s all about working smarter, not harder. Using the right tools can be the difference between an effective marketing strategy and a big old mess. From automating tasks to gaining deep insights into your audience, these digital marketing tools have been created and honed over years in the industry so that you don’t have to step into the unknown without a map. Here, we explore some of the best digital marketing tools available that can help you supercharge your strategy.
1. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a powerful web analytics tool that helps you track and report website traffic, making it essential for tracking your digital marketing ROI. It’s also an effective tool in understanding the behaviour of your audience - which pages are the most popular? How long are people staying on your website? Is your website driving conversions?
Armed with this knowledge, you can make data-driven decisions to help you optimise your website, keeping visitors there for longer and guiding them further along their customer journey.
Key features:
Data reporting and visualisation
Audience demographics and behaviour analysis
Conversion tracking
Marketing campaign funnel analysis
Integration with other Google tools like Google Ads and Search Console
Pricing:
Google Analytics is free for small to medium enterprises (aka 99.9% of all companies), with the features available in the free version covering everything that most businesses need. You can also pay for a more advanced version, Google Analytics 360, which is suited to huge enterprises with much larger data analytic requirements. Differences include a website hit limit of 1 billion in 360 vs. 10 million in the free version, improved data freshness, and customer support.
2. Semrush
Semrush is an all-in-one marketing toolkit for digital marketing professionals. It offers tools for SEO, content marketing, competitor research, PPC, and social media marketing, providing in-depth analytics and insights so you can effectively improve your search engine rankings and refine your content strategy for the most impact.
Key Features:
Keyword research and tracking
Site audit and SEO recommendations
Competitor analysis
Backlink tracking
Content optimisation
Pricing:
Semrush offers three main plans starting at $129.95 per month, though various add-ons are available so you can tailor your package to your business needs.
Semrush’s main packages are:
Pro - $129.95 (around £102) per month - ideal for smaller teams who need Semrush for less than 5 projects, up to 500 keywords, and access limited to just the SEO, PPC, and research tools
Guru - $249.95 (around £196) per month - for mid-size businesses with up to 15 projects, 1500 keywords, access to all Pro features plus the Content Marketing Toolkit, historical data, multi-location and device tracking, and more
Business - variable price - for larger agencies with up to 40 projects and 5000 keywords with API access, PLA analytics, free migration from third-party tools, and more
Other add-ons include Semrush Local, Semrush Trends, Semrush Social, and Impact Hero, which is an AI tool. Costs range from $20 (around £16) for the basic level of Semrush Local to $289 (around £226) per month for Semrush Trends.
3. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a social media management platform that allows you to schedule posts, monitor social media channels, and analyse your social media performance. It helps you to stay on top of your social media efforts, which can quickly become overwhelming when you’re working across Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, X, and more. Hootsuite ensures timely and consistent engagement with your audience at all times.
Key features:
Social media scheduling and automation
Real-time monitoring of social media mentions and engagement
Analytics and reporting
Team collaboration tools
Integration with various social media platforms
Pricing:
Professional - £89 per month, billed annually - up to 10 social accounts, 1 user, unlimited posts, multi-profile post scheduling, a stock photo library, and more
Team - £249 per month, billed annually - up to 20 social accounts, 3 users, and all of the features of the Professional plan plus automated link tracking, team assignments, and departmental organisation
Enterprise - variable pricing - up to 50 social accounts, 5 users, the option to add more users and accounts, and everything in the Team plan plus an asset and content library, campaign planning, social ads analytics, advanced report customisations and more
4. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a robust email marketing service that offers a range of features to help you design, send, and analyse email campaigns with ease. It has a particularly user-friendly interface, enabling you to create personalised and effective email campaigns to drive engagement and conversions, even if you’re not an email marketing expert.
Key features:
Drag-and-drop email builder
Audience segmentation
Automated email workflows
A/B testing
Detailed analytics and reports
Pricing:
There is a free version of Mailchimp which provides you with the basic tools for 1 user to create email campaigns with up to 1000 sends per month and view some analytics. If you’re looking for something more advanced or have a higher amount of people on your mailing list, the paid plans would be for you:
Essentials - from £10.29 per month - up to 5000 monthly email sends, up to 3 users, more templates, email scheduling, the removal of Mailchimp branding, automated customer journeys with up to 4 journey points, A/B testing, and more
Standard - from £15.83 per month - up to 6000 monthly email sends, up to 5 users, up to 200 journey points, much more advanced analytics such as comparative reporting and send time optimisation, and more
Premium - from £277.06 per month - up to 150,000 monthly email sends, plus everything in the Standard plan
5. Canva
Canva is a graphic design tool that allows you to create visually appealing graphics for social media, blogs, ads, and more, even if you have no design experience. Canva makes it easy to produce professional-quality visuals that enhance your marketing materials and capture your audience's attention.
Key features:
Drag-and-drop design editor
Thousands of templates and design elements
Customisable branding kits
Collaboration tools
Download and share options
Pricing:
Canva has a great free version which provides access to the main drag-and-drop editor, over a million professionally-designed templates, over a thousand design types, over three million stock photos and graphics, and 5GB of cloud storage.
Canva Pro - £13 per month - one user, access to unlimited premium templates, over 100 million photos, videos, graphics and audios, 1TB of cloud storage, and other convenience-adding features such as a background remover and design resize tools
Canva Teams - £27 per month - three users, the option to add more users when you grow, the ability to edit, comment and collaborate in real time, team reports and insights, and centralised assets and brand kits to ensure consistency across users
UNBXD is a Creative Digital Agency which specialises in digital marketing, website and software development, media production and branding and identity to create exciting, innovative solutions for breakthrough brands.
We are experts in supporting brands to outline clear objectives, develop strong communication strategies and create unique content which truly engages their audience.
